Autofeeder feeds pellets 5x/day, I supplement at night with frozen mix and nori and feed a ton of it.
I'm of the high import/high export camp. Feed the heck out of your tank and export as much as you can of the nutrients as well afterwards.
https://youtu.be/8QtJVsYNtOI
When water changes are concerned, nitrate removal is a direct function of how much water is exchanged. Change 50% of your water... you lower the nitrate concentration by 50%.
Denitrification, the process of breaking down nitrates, is an anoxic process, without oxygen, and typically happens in our reef tanks in deep sand beds and in the deep interior portions of live rock. Other methods commonly used to remove nitrates employ bacterial uptake, such as carbon dosing, with the bacteria being skimmed out of the system. You can also use a sulphur reactor to remove nitrates as well.
I use biopellets because I tend to like the look of an overstocked tank and believe in heavy import/heavy export. Without my biopellets, even with the amount of additional rock I have in my sump, it can't keep up with my feedings and fish population and would jump to 50 ppm if I remove the biopellets.
For your tank, I would suggest instead of starving your fish (which most graze constantly for food), employ one of the strategies I mentioned above to keep nitrates lower and keep happy , healthy fish while you're at it. The alternative to me is like feeding your dog every other day because you don't want to pick up poop all the time. Sorry, I know that's a severely skewed analogy with implied judgmental tones (which is not my intent) but the best I can think of this early in the morning.
